Perplexing pronoun problem missing the point?

In the Vietnamese language, the use of the first person pronoun (I and me) and second person pronoun (you) depends on the age difference and the social status of the people speaking.

In a country where the idea of questioning teachers can be viewed as disrespectful, most students use the pronoun “em” when talking to their teachers, considered a sign of showing respect.

The same thing applies to students from preschool to high schools.

But some say college students are young adults and should be able to address their professors using the pronoun “toi.”

That means the students and the professors are considered to be on equal sides when it comes to debating.

Vu Duc Vuong, a faculty member of De Anza College in California, saidcollege students should be able to address university professors as “toi.” The idea of higher education, he said, is to equip students with the ability to think independently, ask questions and debate.

When students aren’t considered equal to their professors, according to Vuong, they often are afraid of expressing their opinions.

Tuan Cuong, a college student at Hoa Sen University, said he prefers using “toi” when giving presentations in front of professors.

Cuong said it gives him more confidence to present his ideas and defend his arguments.

But the debate, however, shouldn’t be about the pronoun.

We should be talking about how to teach our students, starting in their early days in preschool, the ability to think instead of forcing them to memorize facts.

That way the students will be confident enough to continue that debate in college.

Then, no matter whether they refer to themselves as “toi” or “em” they still know that their ideas are of as much value as their professors’ ideas.

Reported by Phuong Nguyen